Forgive & Forget - A key to better relationship

1. Forgiving is allowing another person to be human for faults, mistakes, or misdeeds. Forgetting is putting these behind you; they are no longer brought up and no longer remain a barrier to your relationship


2. Forgiving is letting another know that there is no grudge, hard feelings, or animosity for any wrong doing. Forgetting is the lack of further discussion, with no on going negative references to the event


3. Forgiving is letting the other person know that you accept as genuine the remorse and sorrow for actions or words that hurt or disappointed you. Forgetting is promising that this deed, whether of omission or commission, will not be brought up again


4. Forgiving is accepting the sincerity of penance, sorrow, and regret expressed over a grievous personal offense; making it sufficient to clear the air. Forgetting is your commitment to let go of anger, hurt, and pain over this offense


5. Forgiving is giving a sign that a person's explanation or acceptance of blame for a destructive, hurtful, or painful act is fully accepted. Forgetting is the development of a plan of action between the two of you to heal the scars resulting from the behavior


6. Forgiving is the highest form of human behavior that can be shown to another person. It is the opening up of yourself to that person to be vulnerable to being hurt or offended in the future, yet setting aside this in order to reopen and heal the channels of communication. Forgetting is equally as high a human behavior; it is letting go of the need to seek revenge for past offenses


7. Forgiving is the act of love between you and a person who has hurt you; the bandage that holds the wound together long enough to heal. Forgetting is also an act of love; in rehabilitation therapy, helping the wounded return to a full, functional, living reality


8. Forgiving is the God like gift of spiritually connecting with others, touching their hearts to calm the fear of rejection, quiet the sense of failure, and lighten the burden of guilt. Forgetting is the God like gift of spiritually touching others' hearts with the reassurance of a happy and full life with no fear of recrimination, remonstrations, or reminding of past offenses


9. Forgiving is the act of letting go of temporary ill will, disappointment, or the disgust that arises from the break in your relationship. Forgetting is bridging this gap in the relationship, eventually strengthening it against such a break in the future


10. Forgiving is an act of compassion, humanity, and gentleness by which you let another know that she/he is indeed a child of the universe upon whom a variety of graces and blessings have been showered and that current or past offenses need not be a barrier preventing goodness and worth to shine through. Forgetting is the act of encouragement, support, and reinforcement by which you assist the other person to rebuild, reconnect and re-establish a loving, caring, healthy relationship with you, others, and the world whereby gifts, talents, and skills are freely appreciated and shared

Negative Consequences of the absences of forgiving and forgetting. In the absence of forgiving and forgetting, the partners in a relationship run the risk of:

• Continuously being hurt with pain and suffering going unresolved


• Unresolved guilt and remorse for offenses committed


• Chronically seeking revenge and paybacks from one another


• Being caught up in unresolved anger, animosity, and bitterness


• Defensive, self-protective, and distant behavior


• Blaming, negative and non-growth oriented behavior


• Being stuck in a battlefield stockpiled for future offensive attacks


• Being lost in a festering wound that never realizes the revitalization of healing


• Secretive and non-communicative behavior


• Fear over making a mistake or of having the mistake revealed


• Being overwhelmed by fear of failure, fear of rejection, fear of non-approval, low self-esteem, fear of conflict & High stress

So, Forgive someone today and post about how you did it to encourage more to do the same that may lead us all join our hand without any difference in developing trouble free Universe.

The Loyal Wife

There was a man who had worked all of his life, had saved all of his money, and was a real miser when it came to his money.

Just before he died, he said to his wife, 'When I die, I want you to take all my money and put it in the casket with me. I want to take my money to the after life with me.'

And so he got his wife to promise him with all of her heart that when he died, she would put all of the money in the casket with him.

Well, he died . . .He was stretched out in the casket, his wife was sitting there in black, and her friend was sitting next to her. When they finished the ceremony, just before the undertakers got ready to close the casket, the wife said, 'Wait, just a minute!'

She had a box with her, she came over with the box and put it in the casket. Then the undertakers locked the casket down, and they rolled it away.

Her friend said, 'I know you weren't fool enough to put all that money in there in the casket with your husband.'

The loyal wife replied 'Listen, I can't go back on my word. I promised him that I was going to put that money in that casket with him.'

'You mean to tell me you put that money in the casket with him !!! ?'

'I sure did' said the wife. 'I got it all together, put it into my account and wrote him a cheque. If he can cash it, he can spend it.

Backpack is on

Hi Friends,

Sorry for not updating my blog for quite sometime as the usual excuse goes by saying was busy past few weeks. But you have something to read in couple of weeks time about Inspiring India Northern part very soon. Yes, you guessed it right. I am visiting Northern India next week. I will bring back my memory and share with you all soon. Keep looking :-)

The Extraction Job?

The local bar was so sure that its bartender was the strongest man around that they offered a Rs 10,000 bet. The bartender would squeeze a lemon until all the juice ran into a glass, and hand the lemon to a patron. Anyone who could squeeze one more drop of juice out would win the money. Many people like weight-lifters, wrestlers, body builders, etc had tried over time, but nobody could do it.

One day this scrawny little man came in, wearing thick glasses and a safari suit, and said in a tiny, squeaky voice, "I'd like to try the bet." After the laughter had died down, the bartender said OK, grabbed a lemon, and squeezed away. Then he handed the wrinkled remains of the rind to the little man.

But the ! crowd's laughter turned to total silence as the man clenched his fist around the lemon and 5-6 drops fell into the glass. As the crowd cheered, the bartender paid the Rs 10,000, and asked the little man, "What do you do for a living? Are you a lumberjack, a weight-lifter, or what?"

"No," replied the man.

"I work as a Project Manager in a software company !! "

Ipod & deafness? and How EMFs affect our health?

You might love listening to your favourite music on your iPod, but a new survey has revealed that more than 70 per cent of young adults are losing their hearing power, thanks to the increasing use of headphones. A recent survey showed that more than 70 per cent of the youngsters are suffering from the first sign of hearing loss with tinnitus or ringing in the ear.

This may be due to listening to music played at dangerously loud levels on headphones. “That was a real surprise because that was actually more common than the older respondents,” a website quoted Professor Harvey Dillon, director of the National Acoustics Laboratory at the organisation that led the survey, as telling a radio channel. “Mostly for the younger people it didn't happen very often, and it didn't last for very long when it did happen. But it did happen. And we think that that's probably a warning sign for them,” he added.

The survey also revealed that two-thirds of the people listened to music on headphones and of those, 60 per cent played music at dangerous loud levels.

Prof Dillon said it could take just weeks for hearing loss to begin. “That's part of the problem. Although it's happening, definitely, it's happening gradually and people just don't notice it,” he said.

Some 25 per cent of younger people thought that if they damaged their hearing it would get better, he added. The risk of damage occurred in two stages when people go to concerts or noisy venues. “Both occurred inside the inner ear and while one was temporary the other was permanent,” he said. “We tend to notice the temporary loss of hearing .What we don't notice is that at the same time, in the same place but through a different mechanism, there's also a permanent loss going on.

A few hair cells dying here, a few hair cells dying there and they add up from time to time,” he added.

Prof Dillon said that safe headphone audio levels were 85 decibels, averaged over an eight-hour day. He also advised workers exposed to loud machinery or industrial noise to wear earmuffs or plugs to protect their hearing.

Click on this EMF Chart to know how our hearing ability is affected by various types of noises that fills our day.


PS: Nowadays when I'm seduced by the tune to increase my music player volume right before my finger taps the volume increase button my brain taps my memory about this article. Hope it does effect on you as well.

Safety Car in Formula One Race

Earlier you might have read about Formula One Facts. Also you might be eagerly awaiting to watch The first ever Formula 1 Race to be held at night in Singapore titled Formula 1 Singapore Grand Prix on 26-28 September 2008 at Marina Bay area. I recently happened to get to know about another interesting fact related to Formula One Safety Car. And I thought that it will be great news to share with you for your pleasure reading. So, here it is.

The safety car is a key factor in Formula One racing. In the event of an incident or adverse weather conditions, the safety car is deployed by the FIA race director in order to show the cars down and to restore order to the race.

Instructions: The safety car is called onto the circuit to reduce speed, especially during hazardous situations like accidents, unsafe track (objects or dirt on the track), bad weather/poor visibility condition & oil slicks or if there is a danger of aquaplaning.

Regulations: When the safety car is deployed, yellow flags are waved (In Singapore Formula 1 Grand Prix these flags are going to be electronic type, I read somewhere) to indicate that no overtaking permitted, reduce speed and laps completed behind the safety car count as race laps.

It looks like there is a selection process to define a specific car model as Safety Car for the year between the leading Safety Car manufacturers like DC & BMW. For this year 2008 It was Mercedes SL 63 AMG was selected as F1 Safety Car for 2008. Here you can find how the safety car evolved over the period of time.

Sign Language: The safety car communicates with the drivers by means of light signals.
Orange Light – No Overtaking
Green Light – Overtake
Flashing white light – Always On

Free Driving: Once the safety car leaves the track, the leading car determines the pace until the Start/Finish line. From then on the drivers may overtake again.

Kids Playing Video Games Excessively? Make them Play Wii Fit

Growing kids and some matured adults too are playing video game like crazy. Many of them are spending lots and lots of their time in playing video games by means of gaming devices merely like addiction. It causes havoc for their health may it be eye sight issues, behavioural issues, obesity & lack of interest in other social activity.

But strangely some studies suggest that there few positive aspects of such act like games involving firing guns could improve eyesight. Other than this Nintendo's Wii Fit seems to be a gaming method used for rehab.

Fitness-oriented video games are also being used more and more in nursing homes for rehabilitation is an interesting way to make people exercise to make healthy living. Why not you try to divert your kids playing such virtual games that makes them do exercise unknowingly and will surely benefit them with better health in result.

How to Make Decisions? Six Hats Thinking

The Six Hats Thinking technique enables you to break out of your habitual thinking style and make better quality decisions. Six Hats Thinking was created by Edward De Bono with the aim of looking at the effect of a decision from a number of important, different perspectives, and modifying your decision accordingly. This decision making approach can be successfully used individually or in a group.

In short, you consider the effect of a decision by wearing six "hats", and in turn, articulating the aspirations and concerns of each group.

White Hat
This is the data hat, where you consider facts, figures and information, identify any gaps in your knowledge and either fill or acknowledge them. For example, you use historical data or case studies to predict future behaviour, or do a cost benefit analysis.

Red Hat
This is the emotional hat, where intuition, instinct and irrational responses are considered.

Black Hat
Is the negative, pessimistic, "the world is going to end" hat. This viewpoint is useful as flaws and assumptions can be flushed out and addressed, and contingency plans prepared.

Yellow Hat
Is the polar opposite of the black hat, where optimism prevails. This is where benefits and added value are considered.

Green Hat
The Green Hat is used to put some creativity into the process. What other options exist? Is there a trickier, smarter solution?

Blue Hat
Is the hat worn by the person facilitating the decision making process, ensuring each hat is worn in turn and gets a fair amount of air-time.

Here's an example of how Six Hats Thinking can be used.

A small training company are deciding on whether to deliver online training. This is new territory for them as they have historically only done face to face training. However, they need to grow the business and think this is what customers want.

White Hat Thinking
The team look at their finances and see face to face training numbers are generally stagnant, and declining for some courses. Feedback from customers suggest a growing proportion would prefer a training solution that could be delivered "on demand", wherever and whenever the trainee requires. There are already a considerable number of successful training companies with an online presence.

Red Hat Thinking
The team are nervous about their lack of experience in managing online training. They are concerned their roles will change into being technical support and no longer doing what they enjoy or are good at.

Black Hat Thinking
Black hat thinking flushes out concerns about the cost and complexity of building a website and creating an online training platform, particularly if not all courses are suited to an online environment. Also, how does this project fit with existing workload?

Yellow Hat Thinking
Yellow hat thinking frees the team up to believe that in a year's time they will be wondering what they were worried about. They break the project up into manageable chunks, with agreed deadlines and deliverables. They realise that if all goes to plan, there may be a new market in turning other companies training from off-line into on-line training.

Green Hat Thinking
Spending some time wearing the green hat makes the team consider other ways to deliver training, both off and on-line. They create two different training solutions which they had not previously considered.

Blue Hat Thinking
Throughout the discussion, one person wears the blue hat, ensuring no thinking style dominates or colours the others.

Six Hats Thinking forces you to consider many different perspectives when making a decision, and break out of your habitual thinking style. This technique is particularly useful for both newly formed, or established teams, as there is a transparent decision making process to be followed

Apple CEO Steve Jobs unveils iPhone 3G

Yesterday Apple CEO Steve Jobs unveiled iPhone 3G, the App Store, MobileMe, and more in his Worldwide Developers Conference keynote address from San Francisco's Moscone West. Here is a video clip on WWDC 2008 Steve Jobs Keynote - iPhone 3G. This is expected to be released on July 11th in Apple retail outlets & AT&T stores in the US and in 70 other countries by end of of this year.

Here are some Pros & Cons for you to decide on what you can expect on this new iPhone 3G version.

Pros:

• Location-based services via the GPS


• Comes at a low price (US$199 for the 8GB & US$299 for the 16GB version)


• 3G speed is twice faster than its current version


• Thinner than the previous model and much lighter version for extra cost


• Software 2.0 supports Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync, delivering push email, calendar & contacts


• Longer battery life


• Supports collection of applications available on its SDK for gaming lovers


• Looks a little better with the new design


• Better reception & Better Audio

Cons:

• No Multimedia Messaging


• No dock included anymore


• No Copy & Paste


• No voice dialing & Video recording


• No flash support for browser


• No Landscape keyboard


• No expandable Memory

The Law of the Garbage Truck

One day I hopped in a taxi and we took off for the airport. We were driving in the right lane when suddenly a black car jumped out of a parking space right in front of us. My taxi driver slammed on his brakes, skidded, and missed the other car by just inches! The driver of the other car whipped his head around and started yelling at us. My taxi driver just smiled and waved at the guy. And I mean, he was really friendly.

So I asked, 'Why did you just do that? This guy almost ruined your car and sent us to the hospital!' This is when my taxi driver taught me what I now call, 'The Law of the Garbage Truck.'

He explained that many people are like garbage trucks. They run around full of garbage, full of frustration, full of anger, and full of disappointment. As their garbage piles up, they need a place to dump it and sometimes they'll dump it on you. Don't take it personally. Just smile, wave, wish them well, and move on. Don't take their garbage and spread it to other people at work, at home, or on the streets.

The bottom line is that successful people do not let garbage trucks take over their day. Life's too short to wake up in the morning with regrets, so...

Love the people who treat you right.
Pray for the ones who don't - that they see the wisdom of their foolish ways'

Chennai Rail Network Map

Here is the map of Chennai City & Suburban Railway Network Map. This is very useful for the travellers to avoid increasing traffic jam during their journey. Click on the image below to get the clear map

Inflation & Futures Trading in Commodities

We all know that cost of living in the recent days have gone up everywhere in Asian region. A cost for a tea on the road side shops will cost you 5 bucks, If a go into a decent restaurant for a group meals I needed to fill my wallet with bunch of high end denominations of rupees. Things weren’t same as before during my visit to India just a couple of weeks back. Few months back I was chatting with one of my friend about the raising cost of living in India recently, one of the fact that he was telling me was something about Online Futures trading in commodity that adds more fuel to it. He was saying unless government takes some serious measure on all such act we might end up hitting record high inflation ratio like that.

There were analysis done on the topic “Futures ban can bring down inflation in India”. Couple of nights back I also watched special coverage news on the TV about what really drives this Online Future Trading to aggravate inflation. He was telling that there more speculators on commodities that were not meant to be traded this way. Seems like the theory matches with what my friend explained to me during our conversation.

The theory is like when there is no real need for goods by the consumer they purchase it online and keep the stock with the dealer by making payment. Assume later there is a demand for the good that he holds stock (reason being shortage in supply at that point in time) and takes more money from that consumer then instructs the dealer to deliver to the address of the consumer who is actually in need of it. So, this speculation is done purely on the interest of making money by business minded people. As a result it affects us whole.

Probably our Indian government realized the fact that future trading ban on few commodities could help to slow down the skyrocketing inflation ratio. We shall keep our fingers crossed and see what happens in future on sky high inflation issue that trembles our whole nation.

Please feel free to share your views.

Right Way of extinquishing Kitchen Oil Fire

I never realized that a wet dish cloth can be a lid to cover a fire in a pan!

This is a dramatic video (30-second, very short) about how to deal with acommon kitchen fire ... oil in a frying pan. Read the following introduction, then watch the show ... It's a real eye-opener!!

At the Fire Fighting Training school they would demonstrate this with adeep fat fryer set on the fire field. An instructor would don a fire suitand using an 8 oz cup at the end of a 10 foot pole toss water onto the grease fire. The results got the attention of the students.

The water, being heavier than oil, sinks to the bottom where it instantly becomes super heated. The explosive force of the steam blows the burning oil up and out. On the open field, it became a thirty foot high fire ball that resembled a nuclear blast. Inside the confines of a kitchen, the fire ball hits the ceiling and fills the entire room.

Also, do not throw sugar or flour on a grease fire. One cup creates theexplosive force of two sticks of dynamite. This is a powerful message. Watch the video and don't forget what you see. Tell your whole family about this video. Or better yet, send this to them.

Dragon Fruits - An Insight View

I have eaten this fruit during my childhood days I used to bring our cow to farm fields for them to eat grass, we call it Maadu meithal (மாடு மேய்த்தல்) in Tamizh. So, we go for searching varities of wild grown fruits to eat just like our tidbits these days. We come across many such items I can't name them here since its all Tamizh Names all that I know of. During such act I also remembered plucking this type of fruit from Cactus valley grown in the waste land. But those days I ate it just for the taste it, but now I have learned the real power of it.

The legend of the dragon fruit says that the fruit was created by fire-breathing dragons. By eating the dragon fruit it was believed that one became empowered with the same strength and ferocity of a dragon. Other stories say that the dragon fruit looks like a dragon's egg. Enjoy the nutritional facts and amazing health care information of it here.

• Dragon fruit is of cactus family, with high economic value. It can be taken as fruit, flower, vegetable, health product and medicine as well, called "priceless treasure“


• As "king of the fruit", dragon fruit appears shining red and olive-shaped. Every single one is 500-1200g, and its flesh is white or red, tasted sweet but not thick, with light fragrance. The sweetness of dragon fruit is 16-18 degree, better than water melon. It can be called as "water melon on trees", considering about its structure, eating method and planting way


• Dragon fruit is delicious vegetable dishes, having high nutrition, low heat, rich vitamin C


• It is good material of beverage, may be processed to be all kind of drinks


• Dragon fruit can be used as cosmetic and health material, with functions of improving eyesight and preventing hypertension


• Environment protection. Dragon fruit absorbs CO2 at night and releases oxygen to purify the air


• Dragon fruit can be plant easily. It has strong root and is good at water observing, heat and drought resisting. So planting dragon fruit is low cost


• The red flesh variety is believed to be rich in antioxidants. Antioxidants prevent the formation of cancer-causing free radicals


• The dragon fruit is rich in vitamins


• The dragon fruit helps the digestive process


• The dragon fruit helps prevent colon cancer and diabetes


• The dragon fruit helps to neutralize toxic substances such as heavy metal, reduce cholesterol levels and high blood pressure


• Consumed regularly the dragon fruit can help against asthma and cough


• In Taiwan, diabetics use the fruit as a food substitute for rice and as a fiber rich part of the diet

Dragon fruit is rich in fiber, Vitamin C and minerals. The typical nutritional value per 100g of dragon fruit is as follows:

Ashes - 0.68g
Fat - 0.61g
Fiber - 0.9g
Phosphorus - 36.1mg
Carotene - 0.012g
Protein - 0.229g
Water - 83.0g
Calcium - 8.8g
Iron - 0.65mg
Riboflavin - 0.045mg
Niacin - 0.430mg
Ascorbic Acid - 9.0mg

Who I Am Makes A Difference

A teacher in New York decided to honour each of her seniors in high school by telling them the difference they each made. She called each student to the front of the class, one at a time. First she told each of them how they had made a difference to her and the class. Then she presented each of them with a blue ribbon imprinted with gold letters,which read, "Who I Am Makes a Difference."

Afterwards the teacher decided to do a class project to see what kind of impact recognition would have on a community. She gave each of the students three more ribbons and instructed them to go out and spread this acknowledgment ceremony. Then they were to follow up on the results, see who honoured whom and report back to the class in about a week.

One of the boys in the class went to a junior executive in a nearby company and honoured him for helping him with his career planning. He gave him a blue ribbon and put it on his shirt. Then he gave him two extra ribbons and said, "We're doing a class project on recognition, and we'd like you to go out find somebody to honour, give them a blue ribbon, then give them the extra blue ribbon so they can acknowledge a third person to keep this acknowledgment ceremony going. Then please report back to me and tell me what happened."

Later that day the junior executive went in to see his boss, who had been noted, by the way, as being kind of a grouchy fellow. He sat his boss down and he told him that he deeply admired him for being a creative genius. The boss seemed very surprised. The junior executive asked him if he would accept the gift of the blue ribbon and would he give him permission to put it on him. His surprised boss said, "Well, sure." The junior executive took the blue ribbon and placed it right on his boss's jacket above his heart. As he gave him the last extra ribbon, he said, "Would you do me a favour? Would you take this extra ribbon and pass it on by honouring somebody else? The young boy who first gave me the ribbons is doing a project in school and we want to keep this recognition ceremony going and find out how it affects people."

That night the boss came home to his 14-year-old son and sat him down. He said, "The most incredible thing happened to me today. I was in my office and one of the junior executives came in and told me he admired me and gave me a blue ribbon for being a creative genius. Imagine. He thinks I'm a creative genius. Then he put this blue ribbon that says: "Who I Am Makes a Difference, on my jacket above my heart. He gave me an extra ribbon and asked me to find somebody else to honour. As I was driving home tonight, I started thinking about whom I would honour with this ribbon and I thought about you. I want to honour you. My days are really hectic and when I come home I don't pay a lot of attention to you. Sometimes I scream at you for not getting good enough grades in school and for your bedroom being a mess, but somehow tonight, I just wanted to sit here and, well, just let you know that you do make a difference to me. Besides your mother, you are the most important person in my life. You're a great kid and I love you!"

The startled boy started to sob and sob, and he couldn't stop crying. His whole body shook. He looked up at his father and said through his tears, "Dad, earlier tonight I sat in my room and wrote a letter to you and Mom explaining why I had killed myself and asking you to forgive me. I was going to commit suicide tonight after you were asleep. I just didn't think that you cared at all. The letter is upstairs. I don't think I need it after all." His father walked upstairs and found a heartfelt letter full of anguish and pain. The envelope was addressed,"Mom and Dad."

The boss went back to work a changed man. He was no longer a grouch but made sure to let all his employees know that they made a difference. The junior executive helped several other young people with career planning and never forgot to let them know that they made a difference in his life...one being the boss's son. And the young boy and his classmates learned a valuable lesson. Who you are DOES make difference.

I felt that You are Important and that's why you get to read to this post.

WHO YOU ARE MAKES A DIFFERENCE, AND I WANTED YOU TO KNOW THAT!!!

I am passing the blue ribbon to you.

Have an Awesome day, and know that someone has thought about you today!

If you have anyone who means a lot to you, I encourage you to send him or her this message and let them know. You never know what kind of difference a little encouragement can make to a person.

Vineyard Tour in Bourgogne (Burgundy) Region

Firstly I must write about the name Bourgogne, it has to be pronounced as Burgundy. Guide mimicked about how english speaking people tried prounce the Bourgogne with a weird funny pronounce as usual we all do to read any french word.

As we started off from the tourism office for the wine tour they sky was getting more clear as per the weather report it was suppose to be cloudy and brief showers were expected. So, our guide Lu-Lu (this is his nickname) was very happy about the weather and was saying many thanks to nature for bring out the bright sky. He took us at the outside road of rampart around the town. He explained about the ancient buildings on the way.

As we moved out of the town and reached the outskirts all that could be seen were vineyard that was filled up with the roots of grape plants. He explained many interesting theories about the farm fields as we stopped at one place. Depends on the size of the stem the age of the plant can be gauged it seems. There were many samples shown ranging from 10 years till 100 years. If some are dead they are replaced by a new plant but a better protection is needed till it grows well as they are better feast for rabbits as I heard. So, they have protected it with a polythene cover.

Normally the grape farm plants that I have seen in India were grown high taller and makes easier to cut from the standing position, but here they are all cut at the level of our knee. This is to get the better juice out from the grape it seems. So, it is very demanding physically during the harvesting process and this harvesting must be done in a shortest time span just at the ripe condition even few days delay could cause grape become unusable to produce better quality of wine. I also heard from him on my way back that during such harvesting time they are suppose to produce the number of workers in the fields and seems like head count was being monitored from the helicopters. In case of any excessive count they go and catch the owners for illegal employment it seems.

During the plant growth process to apply fertilizer they use copter for spraying pesticides it seems, in order not to touch the ground level they have markings done by the tall stick tied up with the polythene bags on the top of it.

When I visited that was the beginning of the growing grape plant season. He told that this is the period I can show you how the farm lands are split between owners. He showed us the shade in the ground as you can see in the picture different colour of soil means different owner it seems unlike our place we have dividers (vaaikkaal) between each one of our paddy field. Also one owner might have different piece of land at different slopes to produce varieties of wine as the soil condition and weather conditions differs depends on the location.

He showed a wall built between two vineyard regions and told us that this is the end of Beaune and starting of Pommard>. He told us that normally the names of the wine brands are nothing but the names of the wine villages and the place located. He was telling another interesting fact that the quality of wine produced between two different vineyards at the very exact border still differs though it has same amount of slope for better exposure of Sun and used same method of cultivation and same ages for the root. He said that’s how the taste differs.

Important factor for getting better grape to produce wine is the slope land. It cannot be too high or too low (leveled ground). This is mainly because of the right exposure to Sun light and the right Weather condition and the right soil moisture things like that can get good quality of grape for good quality of wine it seems. As we entered the Pommard town he showed us the château of Pommard. He said every village had one Château during those days and was controlled by family from that Château.

There were two examples he mentioned about the design concept of the RC and CSI Churches until that day I didn’t know about how to differentiate the churches of RC & CSI. Its nothing but the cathedrals of RC are built with tall rocket shaped towers and rich in architecture but CSI churches were having square type of towers that were mostly built by huge square blocks stones and were much simple in design. We also passed by the vineyards around this region like Meursault AOC there are some Premier Cru vineyards, Volnay to reach back DE SAVIGNY LES.

On our way back he explained the fact that every house in the villages has their own wine cellar and making their own money. There was one street on the both side that he showed every single house had wine cellars of their own. He was saying though these people live in ordinary houses like the one in the picture they make real good profit out of this business. There were name boards outside the gates of those houses containing their brand names.

At one point after this village on our way he stopped the vehicle at one strange up hill and freed the gear at one upward slope, (don’t know how the law of force works) the vehicle was supposed go downwards as it was uphill but the vehicle was moving upward and he told us that he always why it happens only at that place. You can see that slope as in the attached image. We were also passing by another wine village called Bouze Les- Beaune. First name sounds quite familiar isn’t it? Huh haa, the actual meaning is cow dung it seems.

This posting is becoming bit longer and its getting late for me to get back to bed, So, I leave you guys with a happy reading till now and let me write about the wine making process at the wine cellar in my next post.

Tamil Lieteratures e-Book Collections

This guy Prabhu has good collections of Tamil Literatures. If you are interested to read any kind of tamil literature check out his collections.

One Day trip to Beaune

In a way you are lucky to get this post because I chose this destination in the last minute (just a day before I left Paris) also TGV train fare to Brussels was two times costlier than this destination travel price. Earlier I heard from my friends that Wine tour is something that is unique experience not to be missed. Sometimes when you change your plan you really have surprises in store for you. After visiting this region I felt how lucky I am to change my travel plan to make trip to this area. Reason being this was another rural area but rich in nature especially with its vineyard all around the hill ranges.

I booked my tickets two days in advance to make my way to this wonderful destination at SNCF station, (Luckily I didn’t have much of communication problem like the one I had for booking ticket to visit Switzerland.) You can check with SNCF site for latest train timings (sadly this site is in French but not difficult to understand about the info we need). I had also pre-booked for a wine tour with Bacchus Wine Tours to avoid missing a seat as the seats are limited for common trip.

I had started my journey from Paris early in the morning around 7AM (6.55) and reached Beaune around 9:30AM. I roughly got the location of tourist information office from the Beaune Web Page. So, I headed straight there to get the Pass for visiting local attraction and to pick up brochure on Beaune plan. I got Beaune pass that would give me free entry to Hôtel-Dieu, Musée du Vin de Bourgogne & Musée des Beaux-Arts et Musée Marey (Beaux-Arts Museum).

The wine tour was only at 2:30PM. So, I had decided to visit all the monuments in and around the town. First thing I noticed was the rampart around the town was literally similar to what I have seen in Provins. Later when I walked all around the town it was confirmed they too had similar kind of protection in here too.

If you are a person who doesn’t feel like walking you can rent a bicycle for the whole day with Bourgogne Randonnees. You can in fact take this nice bike for long distance riding too. Its good to go for such long distance ride to enjoy the sceneries around this Bourgogne region. There are cycle route maps are also available at TripAdvisor Forum for touring as well or you can join the bike tour organized by De tours where you can rent your bikes.

First place I visited was the Charity Hospital Hôtel Dieu (Hospices de Beaune) that was built in 15th century by Nicolas Rolin and envisioned it as palace for the poor. This is one of the town's most visible antique buildings. The inner furnishings were done with a polyptich attributed to Rogier van der Weyden. The multi coloured polychrome-tiled roofs of the Hôtel-Dieu have become one of the symbols of Burgundy. They used this place as a hospital for treating ill people. They have varieties of beds used during those days, medical equipments and pharmaceuticals all can be seen inside. There are collections of various objects brought from this area. There was a sacred room, it was dark and with the collection of few arts kept inside the room with low-light. Must have been the place where the saint lived? With that last room visit I came out of the Hôtel-Dieu.

Actually in the morning when I visited the tourism office, the girl at the reception told me that they have weekly market put up on the street today right after the Hôtel-Dieu. When I came out I could see that there was a huge market place happening with varieties of fresh items. Almost everything was available there namely vegetables, breads, butters, meat items, provisions, flowers & fruits. Everything you need for your cooking at sufficient enough for one week. The entire street was filled with colours and market was really happening place. Lots and lots of buyers from locals along with them tourists too joined to choose their pick. I walked along the street and I was lost twice towards finding my next visiting of Musée du Vin de Bourgogne (Wine Museum).

I managed to find the Wine Museum as it was way in through petty lanes. As the name suggests, this Musée du Vin de Bourgogne has collections on Wine Info in the region. There were also varieties of objects that symbolized wine cultures were stored in 15th- and 16th-century rooms. There were samples of tools used for wine making process right from vineyard preparation till packaging. It was nice to see the wine bottles and labels of famous wine brands that were dated centuries back.

After visiting the Wine Museum I took a long walk around the town through the rampart region. It was nice sight with few ceilings have multi coloured polychrome-tiled roofs done by specially prepared materials. It seems like these roofs can be stronger enough to stand out shining for many centuries. I spotted smaller Arch similar to what is constructed in Paris. On the way I was that there was a very old theatre building that was abandoned long time back looked like, not sure if this has any connection with physiologist Etienne Jules Marey, who discovered the principles of the cinema long before 1895. When I came back to the avenue where there was weekly market put up on sale in the morning was completely done winding up and they were washing the streets. There was no evidence to say that such a big open market was existed in the morning.

Since I had time to kill about 1 hour before the wine tour starting time I entered into the Beaux-Arts Museum. It had paintings belonging from 16th to 19th centuries. As usual there were sculptures from Middle Ages and the Renaissance on the display too. I found the sculpture attached quite interesting. Since time was nearing 2:30 to start the wine tour I just moved out of the art museum and at the exit is a tourist information office from where the wine tour was scheduled to start.

OMG!!! It was already 1.30 AM when I finished writing this article. Will write on the wine tour around this region in my next post with lot of information about the whole process of wine making along with interesting snap shots. Until then see you ya…

Tamil Nadu Land Registration Details (Patta Copy) goes online

Another welcoming move by the Tamil Nadu Government on the launch of
e-Services of Government of Tamil Nadu is you can view the Patta Copy (Chitta Extract) and A-Register Extract for the agriculture land in Tamil Nadu.

I am sure will be much useful for the people to avoid counterfeit and to prove the legitimacy of the land.

Cheers to TN Govt for this brilliant effort.

One Day Trip to Provins

I was in search of visiting a village around Paris & I came across this medieval town called Provins (Actually people in France pronounce it as Provans), which is the far end at zone 6 in Paris. So, I started my journey early in the morning and I was eager to catch the train that leaves from Gare De Nord. But I was misguided to take train to Gretz Armainvilliers from Meganta station. So I took it, but I didn’t know that I was going to be stuck down there without train for 1 hour 15 minutes. So, when I arrived there that’s what happened.

I just took a walk to the nearby town entrance and came back an hour was gone. Train was waiting to go to Provins. So, I got in after confirming that it is going to Provins. The more closely train came to Provins, I was bit worried because of the brief showers on the way through out the station. I was hoping to see bright sky, if it rains sure to waste such a nice visit to this medieval town.

It was raining when the train reached Provins and I didn’t lose my hope, I jumped into the local bus to reach the local tourist information centre (Office de tourism) hoping that the rain will stop soon. Luckily it is so happened that the rain stopped by the time I reached there. I just bought the Provins pass that gives free entry to four main attractions such as Tour César, La Grange aux Dîmes, Les souterrains and to museum. I was told that there are some shows happening at different timings so I just wanted to try out one show due to shortage of time and got my ticket for The Legend Of The Knights at 3.00 PM. Also I was given with the local map and started to walk towards the historical places inside the town.

First thing I noticed was the big wall built around the town and it was also under maintenance for restoration. Later I learnt the fact that this was built around the entire town to stop people from entering into the town since around the wall there was a big canal filled with water (may be those days no swimming & wall claiming expert to come across?)

So, when I just entered from the entrance I could feel that I am walking into the place that exists beyond many centuries because the houses were literally that old that is clearly understood because of its built. I first visited the Tithe Barn that was the nearest from tourism office. They had samples of wax humans that symbolized the trading that happened in that underground house during those days. Looks like the town was popular for weaving and there were other trading as well. I happened to see the entrance to the underground route and just at that entrance they put a wax statue looked like a quarry worker. I thought that they were digging something out of it. So, I left it at that.

Since I was running out of time for the show I quickly hurried myself up to the Cesar tower and its architecture was so amazing that it served many purposes like place of refuge, watchtower of the surrounding and a prison. You can go up all the way till the top of the tower, some of the paths were not meant for people in heavy size as it was very narrow. I went up all the way till top and saw a bell weighing 500KG? I still wonder during those days how they managed to bring it all the way to the top. From the top the entire surrounding is clearly visible and I am sure with a telescope you can easily find out who is approaching town from far. After that I quickly moved back to the place near the entrance as the show was organized right behind the walls of the town.

I got myself in by showing the ticket at the entrance on the way I quite surprised to see the war weapons that was used centuries back that I have seen only in Hollywood movies like The Patriot and the most exciting part of it was they have used one of it during the show (just that instead of triggering fireball they used water ball). The show took me back to the time of the knights and was enjoyable with a good theme of chivalry. The stunt shows reminded me of few Hollywood movies where there was lots of sword fighting by riding on the horses and on the lands. The climax was nice with the concept of winning anything by LOVE. Actually the show was done in French language but you don’t really need a language to understand what was happening with their actions.

After that nice show I headed towards the museum and as I wrote before this isn’t much of my interest compared to Louvre. As usual there were few paintings, objects belonging to this territory that existed during11th to 18th century, few sculptures and few coins were what was seen in this 3 story museum. Then I just walked around the churches nearby for a while.

When I came out on search of underground gallery as per the map I was lost a bit and by enquiring few locals I managed to reach there on time before they close as everything is closed by evening 5-6pm. I didn’t know that I had big surprise waiting there for me. I thought I will just go alone without any guide into that underground gallery and come out quickly but to my surprise I was wrong.

The receptionist asked me to join with a guide who was just ahead of me. Lucky I joined her and guess why I call myself lucky? Because the underground that was built centuries back is that huge and very long that connects the entire town across. After I entered in I had no idea of where I am going into as it was pitch dark and the only torch that the guide was holding was the only light that was giving bit of luminous. She explained in French about how this was built and what was the purpose of it things like that.

On the way through the underground she showed some strange animal pictures and names and years dated 17th and 18th centuries written down. She also explained something about the soil layer formation by torching above the head as it was in French I could not understand but I think she gave explanation about how strong the ceiling was as she has also shown about leakage of water from the ground level at one underground hall and the different type of ceiling. The underground was like a real maze to me coz anywhere you go there were many branches out don’t know where it leads to... On the way she also showed us some ventilation holes for lighting and air flow purpose.

Finally we came out from the underground just opposite to the place where we started our exploration. It made me felt like walked at least 1km distance in round. I was just thinking about similar type of existence in Ho Chi Min city in Vietnam that the underground city was built during Vietnam War. I really loved this kind of unique experience that I had under this ground and I wanted to go for another round poor me I was already running out of time and I don’t know what time is the next train to get back to Paris without getting stuck in Provins.

Still I didn’t want to go back to train station as I felt like walking some more and explore the entire town so I started walking back towards the old town towards north and on the way happened to see the place of a very old hospital building then reached back the entrance of the town by that direction. I walked down to the tourism office by the side of the walls around the town and was hoping to get a bus from there to the train station. On the way I witnessed wonderful canola farm fields that were filled with greeneries also a very old cemetery.

At last arrived at the place where I started my visit but the bad news from the bus time table was that the bus service would stop by 6 and it was already 6 plus. So, I had no choice but to take a long walk back to train station. My legs were refusing to move as I was dead tired and I really pushed myself way towards the station halfway through the rain also started bit heavily. Pushed myself real hard again and reached the station lucky I had to wait only 45 mins for the train to start back to Paris. I reached back apart hotel and feel asleep with my legs paining because of the enthusiastic round I made the whole day.

Next day when I told about this place to my office colleagues, who are locals and staying in Paris since they are born, they didn’t even know that there is such a place exists in Paris region. I tell to myself that there are lots more to be seen then.

To me this town is a must visit place in the outskirts of Paris.